What Makes a Plant Magical? Symbolism and Sacred Herbs in Afro-Surinamese Winti Rituals

Andel, Tinde van; Ruysschaert, Sofie; Putte, Kobeke Van de; Groenendijk, Sara

doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-0836-9_10

Cited by 19 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…After centuries of subsisting in these remote areas, Surinamese Maroons have acquired an extensive knowledge of their environment (27,28). They are the major traders and consumers of herbal medicine (29) and enjoy international fame as traditional healers (21,30).…”

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confidence: 99%

Local plant names reveal that enslaved Africans recognized substantial parts of the New World flora

Andel

Klooster

Quiroz

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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How did the forced migration of nearly 11 million enslaved Africans to the Americas influence their knowledge of plants? Vernacular plant names give insight into the process of species recognition, acquisition of new knowledge, and replacement of African species with American ones. This study traces the origin of 2,350 Afro-Surinamese (Sranantongo and Maroon) plant names to those plant names used by local Amerindians, Europeans, and related groups in West and Central Africa. We compared vernacular names from herbarium collections, literature, and recent ethnobotanical fieldwork in Suriname, Ghana, Benin, and Gabon. A strong correspondence in sound, structure, and meaning among Afro-Surinamese vernaculars and their equivalents in other languages for botanically related taxa was considered as evidence for a shared origin. Although 65% of the Afro-Surinamese plant names contained European lexical items, enslaved Africans have recognized a substantial part of the neotropical flora. Twenty percent of the Sranantongo and 43% of the Maroon plant names strongly resemble names currently used in diverse African languages for related taxa, represent translations of African ones, or directly refer to an Old World origin. The acquisition of new ethnobotanical knowledge is captured in vernaculars derived from Amerindian languages and the invention of new names for neotropical plants from African lexical terms. Plant names that combine African, Amerindian, and European words reflect a creolization process that merged ethnobotanical skills from diverse geographical and cultural sources into new Afro-American knowledge systems. Our study confirms the role of Africans as significant agents of environmental knowledge in the New World.

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confidence: 99%

Local plant names reveal that enslaved Africans recognized substantial parts of the New World flora

Andel

Klooster

Quiroz

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Herbal baths form a major part of the traditional medical practices of the Maroons, descendants of escaped African slaves who fought for their freedom and settled themselves in the tropical rainforest of Suriname [14, 15]. Taken from different parts of Africa, their ancestors came from numerous ethnic and linguistic groups [16].…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Plant species used in Saramaccan and Aucan Maroon herbal baths have been the subject of recent ethnobotanical studies [12, 15, 25, 26]. Even Maroons, who migrated to The Netherlands after Suriname became independent in 1975, claimed that herbal baths were essential for their well-being and part of their cultural identity [27].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this study, we compared plant use in six commonly applied herbal baths that were documented among the Saramaccan and/or Aucan Maroons: baths for adult strength [14, 28, 29], baby strength [13, 14, 26, 28], skin disorders [14, 28, 29], respiratory ailments [14, 28, 29], spiritual ailments [14, 15, 28–30], and genital steam baths [12, 14, 28]. In these studies, the baths were mostly described for one specific Maroon community, but no comparison was made among different Maroon groups.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We anticipated that especially spiritual baths would show a low similarity in plant species, based on the symbolic meaning of the most plant ingredients, which is more related to specific Maroon cultural histories than to pharmacological content [15, 25]. However, we also hypothesized that plants used in genital steam baths would show a larger similarity, based on the selection of plant ingredients containing certain active substances preferred in these baths, such as tannins and essential oils [12, 25].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Herbal bathing: an analysis of variation in plant use among Saramaccan and Aucan Maroons in Suriname

Klooster

Haabo

Ruysschaert

et al. 2018

J Ethnobiology Ethnomedicine

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Background: Herbal baths play an important role in the traditional health care of Maroons living in the interior of Suriname. However, little is known on the differences in plant ingredients used among and within the Maroon groups. We compared plant use in herbal baths documented for Saramaccan and Aucan Maroons, to see whether similarity in species was related to bath type, ethnic group, or geographical location. We hypothesized that because of their dissimilar cultural background, they used different species for the same type of bath. We assumed, however, that plants used in genital baths were more similar, as certain plant ingredients (e.g., essential oils), are preferred in these baths. Methods: We compiled a database from published and unpublished sources on herbal bath ingredients and constructed a presence/absence matrix per bath type and study site. To assess similarity in plant use among and within Saramaccan and Aucan communities, we performed three Detrended Correspondence Analyses on species level and the Jaccard Similarity Index to quantify similarity in bath ingredients. Results: We recorded 349 plants used in six commonly used bath types: baby strength, adult strength, skin diseases, respiratory ailments, genital steam baths, and spiritual issues. Our results showed a large variation in plant ingredients among the Saramaccan and Aucans and little similarity between Saramaccans and Aucans, even for the same type of baths. Plant ingredients for baby baths and genital baths shared more species than the others. Even within the Saramaccan community, plant ingredients were stronger associated with location than with bath type. Conclusions: Plant use in bathing was strongly influenced by study site and then by ethnicity, but less by bath type. As Maroons escaped from different plantations and developed their ethnomedicinal practices in isolation, there has been little exchange in ethnobotanical knowledge after the seventeenth century between ethnic groups. Care should be taken in extrapolating plant use data collected from one location to a whole ethnic community. Maroon plant use deserves more scientific attention, especially now as there are indications that traditional knowledge is disappearing.

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Ethnobotany of Brazil’s African Diaspora: The Role of Floristic Homogenization

Voeks

2012

African Ethnobotany in the Americas

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What Makes a Plant Magical? Symbolism and Sacred Herbs in Afro-Surinamese Winti Rituals

Cited by 19 publications

References 20 publications

Local plant names reveal that enslaved Africans recognized substantial parts of the New World flora

Local plant names reveal that enslaved Africans recognized substantial parts of the New World flora

Herbal bathing: an analysis of variation in plant use among Saramaccan and Aucan Maroons in Suriname

Ethnobotany of Brazil’s African Diaspora: The Role of Floristic Homogenization

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